...and the rest of the Humana Festival premieres

Sunday

Feb 28, 2010 at 12:01 AMFeb 28, 2010 at 1:53 PM

(Caption: Brian Russell and Mimi Lieber in Sirens, one of the world premieres produced by the Actors Theatre of Louisville during its 35th Humana Festival of New American Plays. Photo credit: Harlan Taylor)

Any repertory festival starts hesitatingly but promisingly with just one play.. and then builds and keeps building to full strength, as other shows are added to the rotating line-up. One of the most influential repertory festivals is the Humana Festival of New American Plays, produced annually by the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Ky. The 35th annual festival began this past week with Sirens, Deborah Zoe Laufer's comedy about drifting empty-nesters, and will continue with a variety of plays opening in the next several weeks.

(Caption: Brian Russell and Mimi Lieber in Sirens, one of the world premieres produced by the Actors Theatre of Louisville during its 35th Humana Festival of New American Plays. Photo credit: Harlan Taylor)

Any repertory festival starts hesitatingly but promisingly with just one play.. and then builds and keeps building to full strength, as other shows are added to the rotating line-up. One of the most influential repertory festivals is the Humana Festival of New American Plays, produced annually by the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Ky. The 35th annual festival began this past week with Sirens, Deborah Zoe Laufer's comedy about drifting empty-nesters, and will continue with a variety of plays opening in the next several weeks.

(Caption: Dan O'Brian, one of the playwrights whose new works will be staged by the Actors Theatre of Louisville during its 35th Humana Festival of New American Plays. Credit: Actors Theatre of Louisville, Ky.)

Following the previous Theater Talk blog about the Humana Festival, posted late Saturday, here is the rest of the line-up, with descriptions by Actors Theatre:

The Cherry Sisters Revisited by Dan O’Brien original music by Michael Friedman directed by Andrew Leynse part of the Brown-Forman Mainstage Series March 18 through April 11, 2010 Pamela Brown Auditorium How far can you go with ambition, gumption, a good heart—and no talent? The Cherry Sisters’ dreams of Vaudeville took them from their Iowa barn to Broadway, where their inept acrobatics and tone-deaf caterwauling continually sold out, bringing them fame—and a barrage of rotten cabbages. With music by Michael Friedman (This Beautiful City, Gone Missing) and based on a true story, Dan O’Brien’s thought-provoking comedy takes a look at the insatiable urge to perform, and the audience’s inability to look away.

Dan O’Brien’s most recent production was The House in Hydesville at Geva Theatre Center. Regional Theatre: Moving Picture at Williamstown Theatre Festival; Key West at Geva Theatre Center; Lamarck at Perishable Theatre (Osborn Award / American Theatre Critics Association). Off-Broadway: The Dear Boy at Second Stage Theatre; The Voyage of the Carcass at Soho Playhouse (Stage 13); The Voyage of the Carcass at HERE Arts Center (Page 73 Productions); Am Lit at The Ensemble Studio Theatre.

As Composer/Lyricist, Friedman’s credits include The Civilians' This Beautiful City, Gone Missing, [I Am] Nobody's Lunch, and Canard, Canard Goose? as well as Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Saved, The Brand New Kid and In the Bubble. Other credits include The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Roundabout Theatre Company, Second Stage Theatre, Soho Repertory Theater, Theatre for a New Audience, Signature Theatre and The Acting Company, as well as regional theatres throughout the country.

Fissures (lost and found) by Steve Epp, Cory Hinkle, Dominic Orlando, Dominique Serrand, Deborah Stein and Victoria Stewart directed by Dominique Serrand commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville and The Playwrights’ Center February 26 through March 28, 2010 Bingham Theatre Why is it that each time you remember the past, you forget and invent a little more of it? How does a place or a song conjure an experience that you didn’t even know you had lost? Artists from the acclaimed groups Theatre de la Jeune Lune and the Workhaus Collective have teamed up to roam through the fanciful, mysterious territories between recollection and imagination, loss and rediscovery, creating a piece that playfully embodies the ever-shifting landscape of memory.

Steve Epp was an actor, writer, director and co-Artistic Director at Theatre de la Jeune Lune, winner of the 2005 Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre, from 1983-2008. In his 25 years with Jeune Lune, Mr. Epp collaborated on the creation and performance of more than 50 productions. Acting credits include title roles in The Miser at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Tartuffe, Hamlet and Figaro. Epp co-authored Children of Paradise, winner of the 1993 Outer Critics Circle Award for best new play. He also wrote and/or adapted scripts for Crusoe, Don Juan Giovanni, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The 3 Musketeers, The Magic Flute, Figaro, Medea, The Little Prince and The Deception.

Cory Hinkle’s plays have been produced or developed at the Guthrie Theater, American Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Summer Play Festival, Illusion Theater, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Salvage Vanguard Theater, Workhaus Collective, Page 73 Productions, Hangar Theatre and Red Eye Theater, among others. Dominic Orlando won his second Jerome Fellowship through The Playwrights’ Center last year, and was commissioned by Actors Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Nautilus Music-Theater and Teatro Del Pueblo. A former McKnight Fellow, Mr. Orlando is also a Core Writer and a co-producer with The Playwrights’ Center’s company-in-residence, Workhaus Collective. Dominique Serrand, a Paris native, was Artistic Director and one of the co-founders of Theatre de la Jeune Lune (1978-2008). Serrand staged several operas and his directing credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Yale Repertory Theatre, American Repertory Theater, Guthrie Theater, The Children’s Theatre Company and the Alley Theatre, among others. Awards include 2005 Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre, a 2005 USA ARTIST Ford Fellowship, and a 2009 Bush Fellowship and Mr. Serrand has been knighted by the French Government in the order of Arts and Letters.

Deborah Stein’s work has been produced and developed at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Theatre @ Boston Court, The Public Theater, Guthrie Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Stages Repertory Theatre, Women’s Project & Productions, the Wilma Theater, Live Girls! Theater, Ars Nova Theatre and Theatre Artaud; and internationally in Poland, Ireland, Edinburgh (the Traverse) and Prague. A frequent collaborator with Pig Iron Theatre Company, Stein was twice nominated for the Barrymore Award for Best New Play. Her writing is published in TheatreForum, Play: A Journal of Plays and The Best American Poetry of 1996. Victoria Stewart At Actors Theatre of Louisville: Trepidation Nation. Regional Theatre: Workshops include Rich Girl at Tennessee Repertory Theatre, Hardball at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Northlight Theatre, City Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Donmar Warehouse, Leitmotif at South Coast Repertory. Off-Broadway: LIVE GIRLS at Urban Stages, Hardball at Summer Play Festival, The Last Scene at The Public Theater (workshop). Other Theatre: LIVE GIRLS at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Stage Left Theatre. 800 Words: The Transmigration of Philip K. Dick at Workhaus Collective, Live Girls! Theater (Seattle). Awards include the Francesca Primus Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (finalist), McKnight Advancement Grant, Jerome Fellowship, and Helen Merrill Award.

Ground by Lisa Dillman directed by Marc Masterson March 2 through 28, 2010 Pamela Brown Auditorium When Zelda inherits her father’s pecan farm, she discovers that the world at the border between the United States and Mexico has changed. As she faces hard choices about keeping or letting go of the farm, Zelda’s beliefs about family, home, community and civil rights are tested in the face of a shifting political and social landscape. Lisa Dillman makes her Humana Festival debut. Selected Chicago credits include Detail of a Larger Workat Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Flung and Half of Plenty at American Theater Company; and The Walls at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. Dillman’s plays have been produced in New York by Hypothetical Theatre Company and Summer Play Festival (SPF), and in Los Angeles by Rogue Machine Theatre. Her play Rock Shore was developed and presented in the O’Neill Playwrights Conference.

Phoenix by Scott Organ directed by Aaron Posner March 5 through 27, 2010 Bingham Theatre An out-of-character one-night stand spills into 7 weeks, 4,000 miles and 6 cups of coffee as two strangers question the calculated lives they lead and contemplate the uncertain world that might be. A sly comedy about how getting off course can put you on the right track. Scott Organ joins Actors Theatre for the first time. Organ is the author of the full-length plays The Faithful, Fixed and The Remainder. His short plays China and The Mulligan were published in New American Short Plays 2005, edited by Craig Lucas, and his play and everybody else was published in Best American Short Plays. He is the author of the screenplays Ghostkeepersand The Better Man; and the television pilots The Powerball 7 and The Pines.

The Method Gun created by Rude Mechs written by Kirk Lynn directed by Shawn Sides March 16 through 28, 2010 Victor Jory Theatre The Method Gun explores the life and techniques of Stella Burden, actor-training guru of the 60s and 70s, whose sudden emigration to South America still haunts her most fervent followers. Ms. Burden’s training technique, The Approach (often referred to as "the most dangerous acting technique in the world"), fused Western acting methods with risk-based rituals in order to give even the smallest role a touch of sex, death and violence. A play about the ecstasy and excesses of performing, the dangers of public intimacy, and the incompatibility of truth on stage and sanity in real life.

Kirk Lynn is a Founder and one of six Co-Producing Artistic Directors of Rude Mechs. With Rude Mechs, Mr. Lynn has written and adapted more than a dozen plays including Lipstick Traces, Requiem for Teslaand I’ve Never Been So Happy, winner of a National Endowment for the Arts New Play Development Award, set to premiere in Fall 2010. Since 1995, Rude Mechs has used performance to explore collectivity, collaboration and community.

Heist! conceived and created by Sean Daniels and Deborah Stein written by Deborah Stein directed by Sean Daniels with animation by Adam Pinney and Rene Dellefont performances at 21c Museum Hotel, 700 West Main Street March 12-28, 2010 A priceless masterpiece by a reclusive genius is set to be unveiled at 21c Museum, North America’s oneof- a-kind venue for 21st century art...and you’re invited! But the opening night party is about to be turned upside-down, thanks to a wily team of infamous art thieves. As you move through the galleries in and around 21c, you’ll meet penguin-obsessed mobsters and intrepid heisters, eccentric locals and lawmen in this amusingly audacious caper performed by the 2009-2010 Acting Apprentice Company.

Deborah Stein’s work has been produced and developed at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Theatre @ Boston Court, The Public Theater, Guthrie Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Stages Repertory Theatre, Women’s Project & Productions, the Wilma Theater, Live Girls! Theater, Ars Nova Theatre and Theatre Artaud; and internationally in Poland, Ireland, Edinburgh (the Traverse) and Prague. A frequent collaborator with Pig Iron Theatre Company, Ms. Stein was twice nominated for the Barrymore Award for Best New Play. Her writing is published in TheatreForum, Play: A Journal of Plays and The Best American Poetry of 1996.

Three ten-minute plays will be presented on a triple bill.

The festival has been underwritten for more than three decades by The Humana Foundation - the philanthropic arm of Humana Inc. Additional support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

Festival Events Numerous community-wide events will be held throughout the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Some highlights: * March 27, 9 -10 p.m. – Harold and Mimi Steinberg American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) New Play Award * March 27, 10 p.m. - 2 a.m. – 34th Humana Festival of New American Plays Gala A complete list of events can be found at www.ActorsTheatre.org.

Over 380 Humana Festival plays have been published in anthologies and individual acting editions, making Actors Theatre a visible and vital force in the development of new plays.

IF YOU GO The Humana Festival will run through March 28 at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Main St., Louisville. Tickets cost $30 to $56. For information or reservations, call (502) 584-1205 or 800-4-ATL-TIX, or visit www.ActorsTheatre.org. Numerous all-inclusive ticket packages will be available to the general public as of November 16:

PACKAGES New Play Getaway packages are offered to theatre lovers and cultural tourists throughout the Festival and vary by price and number of plays, depending on the weekend guests choose. All packages include multiple plays with guaranteed seating, hotel discounts and a festival guide. New Play Getaway packages during the industry weekends (March 19-21, 26-28) also include a festival gift, airport transportation, complimentary shuttle and Festival Concierge service. Students and Educator Packages: The College Days package (March 12-14) is an educational and professional development experience that includes a package of plays, seminars, post-show discussions, and opportunities to audition for the Acting Apprentice Company or interview for a Professional Internship. College Days provides an insider’s look behind the scenes of a major regional theatre. For more information about these Getaway Packages, call Sarah Peters at (502) 585-1210 or SPeters@ActorsTheatre.org.